Hidden Treasure Brooklyn Museum Is Poised For Discovery

November 28, 1993|by RANDY KRAFT, The Morning Call

Visiting the Brooklyn Museum is like discovering a treasure.

This grand old art museum too easily is overlooked because it stands in the shadow of more famous cultural institutions in New York City. And it's in the bustling heart of Brooklyn, not near any major highways.

This was supposed to become the world's largest museum. But that never happened. Today, many people never heard of it.

The New York Times has called it "an underappreciated, underused museum." On a recent weekday, the only people in many galleries were guards.

Lost in New York, the Brooklyn Museum would be a top attraction in another state. It calls itself one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States.

With its dome and pillars, this palatial museum could stand tall among those on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., or next to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or American Museum of Natural History across the river in Manhattan.

First-time visitors wandering through its many and varied galleries will find themselves wondering why they never visited before.

"Tourists who have been to New York several times are eager to find new things to explore," said Sally Williams, museum spokeswoman. "They will find a trip to the Brooklyn Museum very appealing. We do have an international reputation as one of the great museums of the world."

"You'll never have to fight for elbow space in front of a painting at the Brooklyn Museum," added spokeswoman Michelle Menendez.

Officials hope their museum finally is about to get the recognition it deserves. On Friday, the last two gallery floors in the museum's renovated West Wing will open to the public. That $31-million project has increased the museum's total gallery space by at least 20 percent.

Completion of the project is the most important event in the museum's history since the laying of the cornerstone, stated museum director Robert T. Buck.

New galleries are bright and spacious, with high ceilings and a plain, unobtrusive design --allowing visitors to focus on the art.

No predictions are being made, but museum officials are optimistic attendance is about to increase significantly, especially after the Egyptian galleries reopen Friday. "It's our most famous collection, acknowledged to be one of the best in the world," said Williams. The Egyptian collection has been in storage the last couple of years, during the renovation.

The Beaux-Arts structure gets more than 270,000 visitors a year, according to Williams. "That's not a figure we're particularly proud of," said Menendez. By comparison, New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the biggest art museum in the Western Hemisphere, gets more than 4 million visitors a year.

"This is the second largest art museum in New York -- the state as well as the city," said Menendez. "Only the Met is bigger." Brooklyn Museum is the seventh largest art museum in the United States, according to Williams.

Williams said too many people suffer from "the Manhattan syndrome," meaning they never go anywhere but Manhattan when visiting New York. "We have an easier time persuading tourists from Japan to come visit than we do people who live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan," she said. Among the neighborhoods bordering the museum is Crown Heights, scene of highly-publicized racial clashes between blacks and Jews. Potential visitors are concerned about crime in Brooklyn, acknowledged Williams, but those concerns "are quite unjustified. This is not a high-crime area."

While spending millions on renovations, Brooklyn Museum lacks enough money to be fully operational on a day-to-day basis. It's now open only five days a week. And each day, some galleries or entire floors are closed.

However, all three floors of new West Wing galleries will be open every day, stressed Menendez.

While the museum has five floors of exhibits, it's not so big you'll feel overwhelmed. Plan to stay at least 3 hours; you easily can spend all day here.

The museum has 1-1/2-million works of art, although no more than 8 percent of its collection is on display at any time.

In addition to one of the world's top collections of objects from ancient Egypt, the museum claims one of the most comprehensive collections of American painting and sculpture.

Menendez said its most popular painting is Albert Bierstadt's grand "Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mount Rosalie" (1886). Even more famous are large portraits of George Washington(1776) by Charles Willson Peale and 20 years later by Gilbert Stuart. Works by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O'Keeffe and John Singleton Copley are among the many others on display.